FITS keywords, conventions, and standards
with emphasis on their use at
Lick Observatory and Keck Observatory

MIME media types for FITS

Proposed appendix for FITS WCS Paper IV

FITS WCS papers I, II, and III are published.
FITS WCS paper IV lies in draft form.
FITS WCS paper V is in review now.

Concatenation of FITS World Coordinate Systems

Jess Mink of Harvard/SAO/CfA and proposed an appendix for the text of the FITS WCS paper I (Representations of world coordinates in FITS). This proposal was not included into WCS paper I due to the late date of its origination. Nevertheless, we hope to rewrite it and submit it as an element of WCS paper IV.

The old document containing justifications for permitting WCS concatenation along with the text of the proposed appendix is available here as PostScript or PDF. We suppose that this might become known as "The WCSDEP Convention".

Proposed conventional values for WCSNAMEa

On a less formal level than the above, I propose that there should be certain conventional values of the WCSNAMEa keywords. My ruminations are here.

Issues not addressed by WCS Papers I, II, and III (and IV)

FITS Keywords peculiar to UCO/Lick Observatory

This is a quick overview of FITS keyword syntax and semantics at UCO/Lick Observatory. This includes keywords used by Keck instruments built at UCO/Lick.

Live Database of UCO/Lick (and Keck) FITS keywords

This database is used to simplify the creation of user interfaces and to generate myriads of lines of source code for instrument control. It is also used as a notebook for defining the meaning of older keywords that have long been in use.

For more complete details on how these queries work, see Memes Demos, and Memes Overview.

Bundles of FITS keywords

The following links give several views of keywords which are found in the FITS files produced by various instruments which have been built by or inherited code from Lick.

• Dictionary of Keck CCD keywords
• Dictionary of keywords specific to instruments at Lick Observatory
• Dictionary of keywords related to exposure times and intervals of Keck instruments
  • Overview documentation about the gathering of time-related keywords for Keck instruments.
• experimental keywords related to storing relational database tables in FITS tables
• schema of slitmask design and manufacture for DEIMOS
• Dictionary of keywords created by the CCD readout software (lickserv/watch_ccd/write_image)

Bundles of KTL keywords

The operation of instruments that are delivered to Keck Observatory is performed via keywords that query and modify states. Subsequent to HIRES these bundles of keywords have been stored in this relational database. As such, the database should contain the most comprehensive and authoritative information on the meaning of the keywords.

• Dictionary of KTL keywords for HIRES at Keck (incomplete)
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for PFCAM at Lick (incomplete)
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for HIRES exposure meter at Keck
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for ESI at Keck
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for DEIMOS at Keck
• subset of DEIMOS motion control keywords
• subset of DEIMOS rotation control keywords
• subset of DEIMOS Science CCD keywords
• subset of DEIMOS Flexure CCD keywords (not yet operational, use ESI above)
• Dictionary of DEIMOS memes for the slit mask design file
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for DCS2 at Keck (incomplete and not ours)
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for LRIS at Keck (incomplete and not ours)
• Dictionary of KTL keywords for POCO at Lick
• subset of HIRES Mosaic CCD keywords

Nonstandard Elements of Lick Observatory FITS Files

Concerns regarding Multi-HDU FITS files for mosaic images

FITS files at Keck Observatory

• Overview documentation about the gathering of time-related keywords for Keck instruments.
• a PHDU from a multi-HDU Keck mosaic instrument as both raw and annotated
• an IMAGE XHDU from a multi-HDU Keck mosaic instrument as both raw and annotated

Instrument focal planes at Lick and Keck Observatories